Reed or me?

[rusty]

I`m an asthmatic and at the present am using only a No.1 Rico Royal. on my sax. What I`m trying to understand is that after abut 15 -20 mins play I`m getting all sorts of horrible notes. Simple mid range C`s and G`s which sounded nice and round to start with now either don`t play at all or squeek and buzz. Fiddling around with the reed sometimes gets things going for awhile as does a different emboucher.
I`m wondering if because of the very soft nature of the reed it is softening up too much after extended play or is it me fagging out?
I have only been playing a few months but must resolve this because I sometimes find myself halfway thru` our little band playing, I`m not contributing. Rusty

[SAXISMYAXE]

Hi Rusty,
First of all welcome to the SOTW forums! Other than the obvious problems you may be having with air support and embouchure development etc., there is no doubt about it......a no. 1 reed is too weak from the get go, and only gets worse after a short time breaking it in. I would give a 2 or 2 1/2 reed a chance and see if it helps. It may feel too hard for you in the beginning, but will level out nicely and definitely last longer at an optimal playing strength.

Really week reeds tend to show their flaws most discernibly with Middle D, G/G# and the palm keys and altissimo range.

[rusty]

Well that`s interesting Mike .Thank you. The thing is if it is the reed ,the next day it seems to be OK. Perhaps for awhile. I know tho` that I would find the 2 or 2 1/2 unplayable. Are you saying that these stiffer reeds would become softer as I play them? If so is there any way of hastening this breaking in instead of being red in the face for a couple of days? Regards Rusty.

[Ari]

I agree that the number ones are much more unstable than the harder reeds. As it swells with moisture there will be a dimensional change that just wont happen with say a #3. When the reed dries out it assumes its previous state (more or less). If you want to go to a higher number reed, first you need to build up your emboucher but also you might try a less open facing mouthpiece to enable you to use a stiffer reed.

[Mike Ruhl]

You might consider trying a very soft synthetic reed. But the problem that is that they get really buzzy in the softer strengths.

[dora]

Hello, it really feels like you do have a soft reed. It starts out ok, but as it is wet it becomes even softer and it is hard to play then. If you try #2 and you feel you do not have enough air support, keep going, in 20 minutes it will be soft enough to play. I have astma too. Give those #2 or #2.5 a try and it will be blast.

[rusty]

Thanks all. Dora assuming the No. 2 reed gets soft after 20 mins. does it stay soft? What I`m really asking is on leaving ,and presumably drying out, does it need another 20mins. to resoften. This for me would be impractical. Regards Rusty

[SAXISMYAXE]

Rusty,
A very general rule is that, in most cases, a reed will weaken by approximately one half step in strength as it attains the optimal degree of strength within the playing life of the reed. However, all other things being equal, the softer reeds tend to have additional strength stability, longevity, and performance issues because there is less material at the heart of the reed and this compromises the above qualities. They also tend to become gravely effected by moisture to a greater degree than harder reeds with more "meat" to them.
Trying to weaken the strength prematurely by removing material from the heart or the tip etc. usually destroys the long term integrity of the reed, and shortens it's playable life. This isn't to be confused with minute tweaking of a stabilized reed to make subtle improvements in the reeds performance etc.

Now you know why so many players keep a stable of reeds in various states of "blowing in" so that there are always comfortable, playable reeds at their disposal.

[dora]

Rusty: the reed will soften in the first 10-20 minutes of playing and will stay like that for next day play. You don't need to break it in again next time you play.

[SactoPete]

Rusty,

What size tip opening are you playing? You may find a more closed tip mouthpiece will let you use a stiffer reed and avoid some of these stability problems.

Pete

[rusty]

Pete, I know they say use a stiffer reed with a small MPC opening for better sound but unless the smaller tip allows me to play the harder reeds I`m still left with need to stay with the softer reeds. So at the moment I`m attacking the problem in these ways:
a) Change the soft reed when it starts to sound "wonky" and change to another softy allowing the first to dry out and recover.
b) Try to adjust my emboucher to sound better on the softer reeds.
c) Allow harder reeds to soak for ages to see if they become softer but still retain their tone during a performance playing.
Regards, Russ

[Daniel Scott]

Rusty,

a smaller tip opening WILL allow you to play harder reeds...

Bigger tip openings are harder to blow... and therefore need softer reeds... and vice versa...

This may have an effect on your tone but at the moment I wouldn't worry about it too much.

-Dan